~ Curious Charlie ~

Green Refectory - Brunching in Brunswick @ Thursday, February 26, 2015

13th Jan (Cake for Dinner) & 14th Feb (Late Afternoon Lunch)

We were planning an early dinner, or at least that was the intention. Next to stop 20 heading out of the city is the 'Green Refectory' which does all day breakfast and lots of yummy cakes and wraps/sandwiches/pastries you often see at general food shops, oh and burgers.

With its exposed brick walls, tiles and things that don't match in a space that's too small it's a great representation of the area, hipster trendy easy-going feel. Though it's small and quite crowded even at 5.30pm.

The first thing I noticed about this place, other than it was small, was the cakes!

So many cakes... and so cheap! Coming from the city slices are $8-12, even our off-season house on the hill in Vermont South the cakes are expensive. But here there's slices - but here big ones, not BreadTop sized are only $5!

We picked strawberry shortcake, a chiffon/angel cake slices with fresh cream and slices strawberries. Serves 2, I ate too much too fast (starving at the time) and didn't feel so good, but this is a perfect dessert on a picnic for two, with a lake and row boat in the background.

I've been craving pavlova for a while, though it takes forever to bake and it quite large so that didn't happen. And I didn't want to pay $12 for a slice at Chockolait, so it's been on the wishlist for a while. This one was soft and fluffy, and very eggy scented, but that's the way it's suppose to be. While I enjoyed it, it's more of a occasion cake, than one I love.

Among the goodies available was slices and muffins, I've heard great things about the muffins with pears in them and we shall get them on our next visit.

*click to enlarge*

Pre-Made Lunch Options

Tip - They sell yesterday's slices for just $2.

I'm slightly confused what the idea of this place is though, there's lots of breakfast and cakes/muffins, good for brunch. But then there's your lunch selection of wraps and burgers, and they're open for dinner too. Something for everyone at any time I suppose. With their prices and locations, and the size of the shop I'd imagine it would be packed on the weekends and there'll be lines.

We'll be back for a weekday breakfast around lunchtime. Failure to be mainstream, though I can't imagine what that would be like.

Lunch

Visit Lunch at the Green Refectory. There's a narrow courtyard outback and mainly communal tables. It was consistently busy so we couldn't get a not-blurry picture of part of the menu. The trouble with being mainstream.

Something's missing here...

... I like my cream. :P

Continuing from sweets we started with the 'Blueberry & Pear Muffin' + Cream $3.50, which is their signature thing. It was moist from the pear and perfect with the cream. Though it wasn't very sweet as you could have guesses. Frozen blueberries should be called waterberries. At $3.50 it is the cheapest muffin I've ever had, from a cafe.

Green's Steak Sandwich $11

Fillet Steak, Lettuce, Tomato, Mustard, Cheese, Fried Egg

Since it was lunch we also have savories. He had a steak sandwich, which was bad. The steak was of low quality, and the sandwich relied on the egg and cheese to give it flavour, oh and the pepper which there was plenty of. As to the salt there was only one concentrated area of it. More of my note but they didn't ask which bread he wanted, white bread was presented though we prefers wholemeal/grain.

He consumed 1/4 of the sandwich until he discovered a hair in the egg! We were offered a remake or a refund, and at this point his appetite was gone.

B'fast Stack $11

Potato Pattie, (Bacon), Tomato, Spinach, Halloimi, Mushroom & Poached Egg

Meanwhile my dish went better. This is one large portion! It reminds me of IHOP, think Pancake Parlour but more quantity and cheaper. While it was a simple dish there was lots of flavours. But more your cafe style rather than LuxBite, popular brunch places were a chef created the dish. S/he doesn't cook, they create. No salted & pepper was sprinkled liberally on this dish. The hallomini (cheese) was perfect with the salsa, and potato patty.

It was good though a bit on the oily side, the size is to be share between two. I'm indifferent about recommending this one. While it's very cheap for a brunch-ish place I feel like it's quantity over quality with the savory food.

Lunch

The desserts are a different story though. Beautiful cake adored the fridge at $4.50 a slice this is Melbourne's cheapest slices at very generous sizes. There was vanilla/caramel slices, Tim Tam Cheesecake, another cheesecake, pavlova, cakes for vegans/gluten-issue people. Something for everyone, a strawberry sponge for me and forest chocolate cake for him.

While I'm meh about a meal here I'd stop anytime to pick up a slice of cake, or a few to share if I was bringing dessert to a picnic.

Conclusion: Come for the cake and not a meal.